Melania Trump's Politics Make It Impossible for Me to Like Her Style

I was 13 years old when my mother dragged me to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to see the "Jacqueline Kennedy: The White House Years — Selections from the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum" exhibit. My mom, who makes dresses herself, has always had a keen love for fashion design and looked to Jackie O. as a style icon. My mother just loved the elegance, sophistication, and grace Onassis (then Kennedy) brought to the Office of the First Lady.

I love fashion. I write about it for a living. But the Trump family's actions — or inaction in the face of Trump's decisions — make it difficult for me to enjoy anything fashionable about them. And it is particularly irritating when it comes to Melania's personal style. While I may not agree with her politics or the way she fails to publicly take her husband to task for his awful behavior, I gotta admit — sis can dress, and it's putting me in a very difficult position.

Last month, when Melania stepped out over Fourth of July weekend in a gingham pencil skirt from Altuzarra, a white button-front, and matching Louboutin pumps, I couldn't help but think, This is so my aesthetic. I loved the look from head to toe. It had a simple crispness and sophistication that I adore. Plus, I just love a good red gingham skirt in general. But I couldn't fully enjoy it, because the woman who wore it doesn't stand for much.

Melania Trump in Monique Lhuillier

Justin Merriman

The floral Monique Lhuillier dress Melania wore to her husband's rally in Youngstown, Ohio was another goodie — it almost reminded me, and don't hate me for saying this, of something Michelle Obama would wear (and undoubtedly SLAY in). But who had time to enjoy the dress when the president took the podium to say that — in spite of his puerile tweets and generally dubious behavior — he considers himself, with the exception of Abraham fucking Lincoln, "more presidential than any president that's ever held this office"?

The red Dior suit Melania wore to meet the French First Lady Brigitte Macron was also a look of note...but then Trump's creepy ass had to ruin the moment (even more than he does by just, you know, showing up) and make that gross comment about Macron's body. "You're in such good shape. She's in such good physical shape. Beautiful," he said...right in front of Melania, his wife, as Mrs. Macron slowly backed away from our sketchball-in-chief.

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Ivanka Trump in Dior

Aurelien Meunier

But it is not just the actions and shameful policies of Mr. Trump that is ruining Mrs. Trump's style for me. It is also her actions that cause me to recoil where I would usually heap on praise. I loved this beautiful pink Roland Mouret dress she wore to meet South Korean president Moon Jae-in and his wife Kim Jung-sook. But then I remembered how Melania supported her husband's racist birtherism campaign and I closed the tab. How could I celebrate the same woman who helped peddle a racist lie about a man who had done nothing to her except exist with the "wrong" skin color, belong to the "wrong" political party, and be the object of her husband's jealous obsession?

And let's not forget how Mrs. Trump, who not so long ago declared she would be leading an anti-cyber bullying campaign, defended her husband after he cyber-bullied Mika Brzezinski, calling her "low I.Q. Crazy Mika" and saying she had been "bleeding badly from a face-lift" when he saw her at a previous event at his Mar-a-Lago club. "As the First Lady has stated publicly in the past, when her husband gets attacked, he will punch back 10 times harder," the First Lady's spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said in a statement in response to Trump's attack on Brzezinski. Weak AF.

I couldn't even fully appreciate that lovely white Roksanda Ilincic dress Melania wore to the RNC last year, when she went so far as to plagiarize one of then-First Lady Michelle Obama's old speeches. Guess her people couldn't come up with something original to say. Sad!

Melania Trump in Roland Mouret

NICHOLAS KAMM

I promised myself I wouldn't let Trump and his administration steal my joy. This can be a difficult pledge to keep up. No, my inability to enjoy Melania's sartorial choices is not on the same level as the threats Trump's actions pose to people of color, LGBTQ+ people, immigrants, refugees, women, and more. But damn it, I'm salty about it! While he continues to chip away at the civil rights of our fellow citizens, cheer on and encourage police brutality, and whine about how "unfair" the media and anyone who disagrees with him is, I can't even get a moment to fully enjoy his wife's cute clothes because of his disgusting, boorish, tyrannical behavior — and how she goes along with it all.

In the midst of all the havoc Trump and his team of morally bankrupt goons are wreaking on this country, I would be happy to at least get excited about Melania's outfits as a break from the madness. But as long as Donald Trump is Donald Trump and Melania doesn't stand up to him, I won't be able to. And that's a damn shame.